Wardown Park House

Wardown Park House is a substantial country house built in 1876 in a neo vernacular style by T C Sorby. It features Luton grey bricks with light brown stone dressings, moulded red brick, and terracotta detailing, topped with a new clay tile roof that retains some fishscale tiles, finials, and crested ridges. The house has an irregular but compact plan, consisting of two storeys and attics, with various gables, roof slopes, and neo-Tudor chimneys, mostly grouped in threes, some linked and patterned.

The west entrance front includes a portecochere in a classical style, with a heavy pierced parapet and corner panels above a projecting cornice. Triple fluted pilasters mark the external corners, adorned with long narrow swags in between. Three external arches feature six heads in spandrels, representing famous statesmen including Gladstone and Disraeli. Above the portecochere, there is a central bay window with mullions and transoms, showcasing five flower pattern parged panels over five lights. A jettied gable sits above, displaying prominent moulded bargeboards, fishscale tile hanging in the apex, and three leaded lights set in panels of flower pattern parging. To the left of the portecochere is a two-storey bay with a three-sided hipped roof, featuring blind gablets filled with terracotta scallops. A similar bay is found to the right of the entrance, both bearing inscriptions above the first-floor windows.

The south garden front has a gable end on the left, with a forward projecting gable to its right, echoing the treatment above the west entrance, situated over a single-storey bay window. To the right is a two-storey bay window. The east elevation is divided into two parts, with a large gable on the left and a right section featuring red brick bands. The left gable has projecting bargeboards arranged as a truss, while the right side includes a smaller gabled dormer with stone dressings. The building is currently used as Luton Museum and Art Gallery.